Harry lay on the floor, trying to stifle his cry of pain as he heard his arm crack. Pain shot up his damaged appendage as tears started to leak out of his eyes. Harry"s world took on a neon blue hue as the salty droplets ran down his cheeks. Through the immense agony, the young boy heard his cousin"s piggish laughter and the sound of someone knocking on the door. At the same time, however, Harry felt a weird ringing in his ears, as if a pressure was released in his head at the same time that his arm flashed neon blue for a second. Harry had been injured and received broken bones before, but he had never had such a reaction as this; though he had never felt a bone shatter quite as finely as he did when his cousin had beaten him with the fire poker.
Ding-Dong!
Harry saw his cousin"s eyes widen, Dudley dropped the fire poker and ran to the front door of the house. Unfortunately for Harry, Dudley purposefully stepped on his throat in his hurry to get the door, effectively curbing the scream that was about to erupt from Harry"s throat.
"Good evening," Harry heard a cultured French accented voice state from the direction of the front door. "My daughter and I were driving by and we happened to blow a tire, it also appears that our spare is flat as well. Could we please use your phone?"
Through the pain Harry gave a very quiet whimper hoping the man would hear him. Normally, it would not be heard by the average person standing outside the front door. Luckily for Harry though the man at the door was not the average person. Living a life of somewhat danger and support of his country"s government, and just back from a tour in the "military" where one"s senses became acute if one wanted to live, the man heard a small whimper that definitely did not come from an animal.
"What was that?" Harry heard. He heard yelling then heard the fat weight of Dudley being shoved to the ground as the floor shook. Harry giggled slightly as he was somewhat delirious from the pain, thinking that only his uncle could make the house shake. He was interrupted from his thoughts by a warm yet firm voice.
"Are you alright son?" someone said. Harry looked up through his tears to see a man with brown hair and blue eyes.
Harry attempted to lift his arm, which was now blue and purple. "Arm hurts," Harry gasped through his bruised throat.
The man, having some knowledge of injuries, gently took the arm and felt around the area.
"It looks like it"s broken. We need to get you to a hospital." The man then scooped Harry into his arms as gently as he could, but it was still enough to make pain shoot through Harry"s body. Harry passed out from the pain just as he felt the sun on his face from the threshold of the front door.
-x-x-x-
"Beep... Beep... Beep..."
Was the first sound that Harry heard upon waking.
Before even opening his eyes, Harry carefully used his other senses to judge where he was; it wouldn"t do to let Uncle Vernon know that he was awake if the big man was just waiting for the right instance to punish Harry. Sniffing allowed Harry to determine the room he was in was very clean and sterile. He could also hear some muffled talking in a language that he didn"t understand. The small boy slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in a hospital room. The man from earlier was talking to another man who was wearing a long white coat.
"Hi!" a cute perky voice said from his other side. Harry turned to look at her. She was a beautiful girl a couple of years older than him with long blonde hair that had silver in it framing a cute face.
"I see my patient is awake," the man in the long white coat said as he seemed to be signing some paperwork and handing it back to the man who had saved Harry earlier. "My name is Doctor Fairbanks."
"What happened after I became incapacitated?" Harry asked quietly, his throat still hurting a bit to talk. His vocabulary was amazing for his age, only because when he was locked in his cupboard he had nothing other to do other than to read.
It wasn"t like Dudley would actually be using the dictionary and other books his parents bought him.
"From what the police could tell when they inspected the house, your cousin broke your arm with a fire poker then stepped on your throat as he was running out of the room." The man said with a slight French accent. "My name is Jean Delacour. I"m the one who rescued you from your relatives."
"I"m Fleur," the girl said happily from the side of Harry"s bed. The man smiled affectionately at his daughter"s mannerisms.
"Wait, rescued?" asked a confused Harry. Both men adopted angry looks, which caused Harry to shrink away from them. The men immediately softened their faces when they saw his reaction to their anger.
Mr. Delacour gently rested his hand on Harry"s shoulder and gave the boy a soft smile.
"Yes, rescued. The police found signs of abuse and a lot of blood in the cupboard under the stairs that had a mattress in it. They wouldn"t have even bothered to look if it wasn"t for one of the officer"s belt getting stuck on the lock which broke as he pulled away." Mr. Delacour explained.
"What happens to me now?" Harry asked. He didn"t want to go to an orphanage and from the information Mr. Delacour gave him, Harry doubted he was going back to the Dursleys.
"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to come home with Apolline, Fleur and I?" Mr. Delacour suggested with a smile. "It would be on a trial basis to see if we could be a family." Mr. Delacour added softly as he crouched down next to Harry and gently hugged the boy. Harry in turn broke down and cried into the man"s shirt; releasing a good deal of the pain and agony that he had been in, as well as the release of the anxiety of not knowing about what was going on.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Harry repeated into the man"s shirt, his voice stifled as he sniffled into the man"s collar.
"Good, the Doctor said you"re ready to leave and the forms were all signed giving us the ability to care for you for now. We just have to wait on Fleur"s mama to get here and then we"ll go home," Mr. Delacour informed Harry. "Oh, and please call me Jean. Being addressed as "Mr. Delacour" makes we feel like I should be looking around for my father to reply."
Harry nodded happily at him. He turned to the girl that was still standing next to his bed. "Hi. I"m Harry."
"I know that silly" Fleur replied with a bubbly giggle. "We"re going to have so much fun!" She continued.
Harry couldn"t help but smile at her enthusiasm.
"Looks like I have the right room," a new voice called out. The voice was definitely female, it was soft, warm, and held a musical quality to it. The woman had shoulder length silver blonde hair, green eyes along with a heart shaped face. To put it simply, she was gorgeous.
"It is ma Cherie," Jean said. "Harry, this is my wife Apolline. Apolline, this is Harry."
"It"s nice to meet you Harry, call me Apolline. I"m sure you"ll fit right into the family." Apolline told the boy warmly. She gave Harry a gentle hug and kissed him on both cheeks, making sure not to agitate his arm.
Harry blushed and returned the hug with a bit of a sniffle. He finally had a family.
"Hurry and get changed Harry. No one wants to stay in a hospital any longer than they have to. I"m not even hurt and I"m getting the chills." Apolline winked at him. Harry smiled at her and accepted the clothes she gave him.
They gave him his privacy as he changed, which took longer than usual because of the cast around his arm. After Harry was dressed, he saw that they were still waiting for him. He gave a small sigh of relief to himself, and smiled at the Delacour family.
"Hurry up Harry. We have an appointment with the optometrist for glasses, and then we have to buy you some new clothes. Apolline made the appointment on the way over here." Jean said. Harry nodded and smiled shyly at him. He had never had new things, even his glasses where from a garage sale.
"Hold my hand Harry," Apolline said. Harry took her hand and she drew him close to her. At first he stiffened at the contact before relaxing against her side.
-x-x-x-
"There"s something you need to know Harry," Apollinetold her new charge softly. She was sitting in the backseat between Fleur and Harry so she could talk to both of them. She waited until she had his complete attention.
"Have you ever done something strange or something you can"t explain?" she asked.
Harry thought hard about the question because he could see that the answer was important to her. He had done a couple of things that made Uncle Vernon beat him in the past, and there was one recent incident that he could remember, but didn"t know if he should tell her.
"Whatever it is, you can tell me." Apolline soothed.
"I..." Harry said before swallowing. "I talked to a snake a couple of months ago and it talked back. It called me master." He cringed away from her as he was sure that they would think he was crazy and not want him anymore.
"That"s impressive. It seems like you have a rare skill called Parseltongue. It"s a magical skill that allows you to talk to snakes." Apolline explained calmly with a smile.
"Magical?" Harry asked.
"Yes, magic exists. Jean and you are wizards, while Fleur and I are witches." Apolline answered.
Harry nodded. It explained a lot, his uncle yelling about his "freakishness" and trying to beat it out of him.
"Jean works at the French Ministry of Magic and just got back from doing a tour in our military. We live in France normally but we"re in England for vacation," Apolline clarified the current status of her family for its newest possible member.
"We"re going to take you to an Eye Healer, then to a mall for clothes shopping. I can see that those glasses are horrible," Apolline announced with a somewhat haughty snort.
Harry could see that she wasn"t belittling him; it was just that both Fleur and her mother were dressed in the type of really expensive clothing that his aunt Petunia and her friends had always gossiped about.
"I"m going to cast some spells on you to disguise your face. I"ll tell you why when we get home alright," Apolline explained. Harry nodded and he saw her withdraw a slender piece of wood. "This is my wand. I use it to cast spells." She tapped his head twice. She took out a mirror and showed him his new appearance. He had blonde hair and his scar seemed to be gone.
Harry nodded his head again, still absorbing what he was told. He felt someone grab his hand and saw that it was Fleur. She smiled shyly at him and he smiled back.
-x-x-x-
The Eye Healer was like nothing Harry had ever seen before, though Harry really hadn"t "seen" much before due to his bad vision. There were glasses of all kinds along the walls, even monocles and scuba masks.
"Honey, how did you get an appointment so soon?" Jean asked as he saw the packed room.
"I called and they said that they had an opening because someone had canceled earlier. We were lucky to get it." Apolline responded.
"Delacour," the female receptionist called out in a bored voice.
The Delacour family plus Harry made their way into one of the exam rooms where they were met by an aging old man.
"Hello. My name is Healer Winn. What can I do for you today?" Healer Winn said as the family sat down.
"Harry here needs some glasses," Apolline told the Eye Healer.
"Can I have contacts?" Harry asked. Apolline was about to say no that he didn"t need magical contacts, when Harry gave her the puppy dog face, complete with trembling lip.
"Are you sure?" she asked. Harry nodded his head hard.
"I guess contacts," Apolline relented with obvious reluctance in her voice.
The Healer then took out a stick of wood and waved it in front of Harry"s face. Apolline squeezed his hand and Harry stopped his first reaction to jump away.
"Alright, I can make the contacts now." Healer Winn informed the family.
"Thank you," Jean told the older man. The healer left the room for ten minutes and he returned with a pair of contacts.
"These will last you a lifetime and you won"t ever have to take them out." Healer Winn explained to Harry. Healer Winn then helped Harry put the contacts into his eyes.
"Wow," Harry muttered. For the first time that he could remember, he could see perfectly. Healer Winn escorted them back to the waiting room after he was sure Harry was satisfied.
"Thank you," Apolline said as she paid the female receptionist.
The Delacour family and Harry made their way out of the office, talking loudly about where they were going shopping. They didn"t hear what the Eye Healer muttered with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Good luck Harry Potter... I hope you like the gift when you turn eleven."
-x-x-x-
"Shopping time!" Apolline squealed out, to which Fleur mimicked her mother and squealed also. Harry hadn"t ever been shopping before, but that squeal suddenly brought fear to him for an unknown reason.
"Don"t worry Harry, I feel the same way." Jean whispered to him with a look of a man resigned to his fate.
"I heard that!" Apolline shouted.
"We should get dinner first," Jean suggested in hopes to stall the shopping.
"Good idea, how about McDonalds?" Apolline asked.
"I want a happy meal," Fleur said quickly.
"What do you want Harry?" Apolline asked.
"I"ve never been," Harry admitted softly.
Apolline narrowed her eyes before speaking.
"How about just the normal happy meal then?" she asked.
Harry nodded his head shyly.
-x-x-x-
After a surprisingly tasty happy meal, Harry found himself in the biggest building he had ever seen.
"Time to shop!" Apolline called out. She and Fleur then proceeded to drag Harry around the store like he was their own personal dress-up doll. After hours and hours of shopping, where Mr. Delacour simply looked at Harry with the sympathy of one who has shared misery, they had dressed Harry up in different outfits until he had a full wardrobe.
"Apolline, it"s already seven. Fleur has school in the morning and we have to register Harry," Jean told his overzealous wife with exasperation in his tone.
Apolline"s shoulders slumped at the end of her shopping but nodded.
"Alright, we can do another shopping trip sometime soon now that we have gotten the bare necessities," Apolline stated as she and Fleur led the men out of the store, the men absolutely buried in packages.
Both Harry and Jean felt a quiver of fear trickle down their backs at the thought that the packages they were carrying were merely "the necessities."
-x-x-x-
Harry was barely awake when he was set down in the guest bedroom at the Delacour house. He snuggled into the softest, warmest bed he had ever laid on, and fell asleep.
"Goodnight Harry," a voice whispered to him. He felt someone kiss his forehead and he mumbled a "goodnight" back.
Five Years Later...
Harry woke up in the bed that had been his for the past four years. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out. He heard soft moans coming from his sister"s room. He had heard her before so it was nothing new.
He was freaked out however, when his vision turned neon blue before the wall between his room and his sister"s disappeared. His eyes widened at the sight of his older sister, stark naked. Harry had seen his sister naked many times, the thing that made his eyes widen was the fact that he could see her touching herself in certain areas. What shocked him further was that he heard his name on her lips.
Fleur didn"t seem to notice Harry so he got up and walked to the wall. He reached his hand out and found that the wall was still there, it was just that he could see through it.
Harry sat back onto his bed and watched his sister. She had a body of a fifteen year old even though she was only thirteen. He himself looked like he was closer to thirteen than ten. The healers had told him that the more powerful the wizard, the sooner they went through puberty. He had started puberty almost two years ago.
Fleur didn"t stop until it was time to get up for the day. Fleur got out of bed and got dressed. Harry watched her leave her room before he got dressed himself. He caught up to her at the stairs.
"Good morning Fleur," Harry greeted her in perfect French
She turned around, "Hello little brother...Happy birthday!"
"Little brother? I"m taller than you are," Harry complained with a bit of a grimace. And it was true, even with the three year age gap; Harry was inches taller than her.
"Anyway, I heard some interesting sounds coming from your room," Harry said casually as they both walked down the stairs together.
Harry watched for Fleur"s reaction out of the corner of his eye.
Fleur stopped and started stammering while blushing.
"So what were you doing?" Harry asked even though he already knew. Apolline and Jean were very open about their sex life and answered any questions that he or Fleur had.
"N-nothing!" she cried out.
"Really? It didn"t sound like nothing," Harry teased. Her blush intensified tenfold.
"Nothing," she said again.
"Seriously, Fleur." Harry said firmly, with an honest smile. She looked conflicted.